Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government.

Attorneys received an overview of the U.S. District Court’s workload in Colorado for 2023, and a panel assembled in downtown Denver to discuss the takeaways from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023-2024 term.

Federal statistics

•  Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty delivered his annual presentation about the work of Colorado’s federal trial court by the numbers. Among the highlights from 2023: Criminal trials were down, conviction rates were up, insurance disputes made up a large portion of jury trials, and self-represented plaintiffs filed a smaller share of civil lawsuits than in years past.

•  Hegarty, who is currently the longest-serving magistrate judge on the court, will be retiring in January. He noted the number of settlement conferences — facilitated by magistrate judges in some civil cases — will likely drop because he generally conducts the largest share of such proceedings.

•  “It has not been to my general docket benefit to do those things because I’ve done 1,400 (settlement conferences total),” he said. “Average of seven hours, maybe, or eight hours, maybe. Do the math. That’s 12,000 hours I haven’t worked on orders and things.”

SCOTUS discussion

•  The Colorado Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society hosted a panel discussion about the Supreme Court’s most recent term. The speakers included Judge Allison H. Eid, a Trump administration appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit; Missouri’s solicitor general, Josh Divine; Nicholas Ganjei, chief counsel to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Allison Turbiville, counsel for Vail Resorts.

•  “People are saying, ‘Ah, it’s a blockbuster term.’ Well, what does that mean? Basically every term at the court is a blockbuster term,” said Eid. “By definition, they take the most important cases, they resolve them and we analyze them. But I do think this term might be a little different. I’m calling it a ‘blockbuster-plus’ term.”

•  The discussion touched on the Supreme Court’s abandonment of “Chevron deference,” the magnitude of the court’s conservative lean and the Biden administration’s proposed court reforms.

•  Also in attendance were Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich of the 10th Circuit, who is a longtime Federalist Society member, and Jason R. Dunn, Colorado’s U.S. attorney under the Trump administration.

Heard on appeal

•  The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to examine the scope of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Counterman v. Colorado, which imposed a requirement for prosecutors to prove an alleged stalker’s awareness he was making threatening communications to his victim. The question is now whether stalking prosecutions not based on the defendant’s words themselves — i.e. if the stalking consists of repeatedly emailing or texting the victim — also need to prove the alleged stalker’s intent.

•  The state Supreme Court will analyze whether trial judges can order defendants in postconviction proceedings to disclose details to the prosecution of their expert witnesses’ testimony in advance of a hearing.

•  The justices also accepted six cases from the Court of Appeals, touching on involuntary intoxication, the statute of limitations for minimum wage claims, malicious prosecution lawsuits, claims made on behalf of deceased persons, and judges’ ability to revoke a parent’s choice of a child neglect jury trial.

•  The Court of Appeals clarified that plaintiffs’ attorneys may use allegations made against the defendant in other legal proceedings in their own complaints without running afoul of the requirement to do a reasonable inquiry.

•  By 2-1, the Court of Appeals took no issue with a caseworker’s failure to facilitate rehabilitative services for a father while he was incarcerated during his ongoing child neglect case.

In federal news

•  The 10th Circuit had no “grave doubt” that the videotaped statement of a wanted fugitive, even if it was improper evidence, contributed to the conviction of a 17-year-old in a 1998 Aurora murder case.

•  For the second time in four years, the 10th Circuit reinstated two plaintiffs’ claims of malicious prosecution against an ex-Denver prosecutor.

•  The 10th Circuit agreed the city of Lakewood and its police officers could not be held liable for surrounding a man’s home, calling him outside, failing to identify themselves as police and then shooting him.

•  A federal judge took more than two years to decide he wasn’t going to grant an incarcerated man’s request for compassionate release on COVID-19 grounds.

•  A federal judge heard arguments in a lawsuit against state prosecutors from Barry Morphew, who was charged with his wife’s killing before the case was dismissed in 2022.

Vacancies and appointments

•  The governor has appointed Melissa C. Meirink, a longtime staff attorney for the Colorado Supreme Court, to succeed Judge Anthony J. Navarro on the Court of Appeals. When her appointment takes effect, the state’s second-highest court will be evenly split between men and women. The governor’s choice also means he passed over District Court Judge Priscilla J. Loew in the seventh appellate vacancy for which she was a finalist.

•  Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, as acting governor, named Magistrate Dayna L. Vise to succeed retiring District Court Judge Lynette M. Wenner in the 11th Judicial District (Fremont, Park, Chaffee and Custer counties).

•  There are three finalists to succeed retiring District Court Judge Monica J. Gomez in the Fourth Judicial District (El Paso and Teller counties): Theodore Paul McClintock, Michael A. Watts and Magistrate Sarah Elizabeth Zane.

Holiday break

•  Court Crawl will be off next week for the Labor Day holiday.